Burma

The generals who have run Burma with an iron hand since 1988 tried to soften
the image of their authoritarian regime in November when the State Law
and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) was given the kinder, gentler appellation
of State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). But a junta is still a junta,
and the name change did nothing to ease the deplorable state of the press
and other forms of free expression.

There are no independent newspapers or broadcast outlets in Burma. It
is illegal to own a photocopy or fax machine, computer modems are contraband
items, and only a handful of foreign companies, embassies and government
agencies maintain legal access to the Internet. Local stringers for foreign
news agencies face harassment and are frequently constrained in their reporting.
Foreign reporters are often denied visas to the country, especially those
whom the generals deem unsympathetic to their rule.

A tiny number of opposition leaflets and newsletters are produced by
hand in Burma using silk-screen printing. These publications, seldom numbering
more than 1,000 copies, are sometimes distributed on college campuses at
great risk to their publishers. Even this activity has been sharply limited
by the continuing closure of nearly all universities and colleges following
student demonstrations in late 1996. A tiny underground short-wave radio
station, the Democratic Voice of Burma, or DVB, operates in the jungles
near the Thai-Burma border and carries news of ongoing military campaigns
against ethnic insurgents, jailings, and other banned topics. The only
other non-official media come from Burmese-language services operated by
the Voice of America, British Broadcasting Corporation, and the U.S.-sponsored
Radio Free Asia.

The SPDC frequently has continued a long-standing practice of barring
visiting journalists from meeting with opposition leader and Nobel Prize
laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy (NLD)
is virtually the only independent political voice in the country. They
also continue to disrupt her phone service, impeding her ability to communicate
with journalists outside the country. On the eve of the NLD’s party congress
in May, the SPDC detained hundreds of NLD aides and party members. Eventually,
the two-day event went forward at Suu Kyi’s residence, but the military
controlled access and barred the press from covering the meeting.

Also in May, the junta asked the government of Thailand to prevent Thai
reporters covering a state visit to Rangoon by then-prime minister Chavalit
Yongchaiyudh from speaking to Suu Kyi. CPJ joined protests by Thai press
groups by writing letters to the governments of both Thailand and Burma
denouncing the action. On June 13, five NLD workers were arrested following
the release abroad of a videotaped appeal for democracy by Suu Kyi. The
five were later given lengthy prison terms and accused by junta member
Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt of having collaborated with "overseas anti-government
activists and advocates of destruction within the country."

In July, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) ignored
international protests and an abysmal human rights record and lent legitimacy
to one of the world’s most repressive regimes by admitting Burma as a member
of the association on the strong urging of Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore.